Remember that time Derek Stepan was good?

[JCrusher*]

i dont think hes been awful...I think he's been mediocre. there's a difference.

before the columbus game, Rick Nash was AWFUL....Stepan has just sorta been a filler player this year.

which sucks since hes basically our best forward.

Brassard has bee really really good the past few weeks.

Mediocre isnt exactly a accomplishment even for a 3rd 4th line player. Stepan was expeceted to be our top C. The only positive is his defense but so what even boyle is a good defender. Mediocre is a bit kind IMO

 

[Oak]

Stepan is a prime example of politics getting you places in USA Hockey, and the NHL. The guy really has none of the traits or skills necessary to be an elite player in this league. How he got hyped up the way he has is beyond me.

 

[Cassano]

Stepan gets a free pass more so than other players because he's pretty much the Rangers only hope of developing a #1C, which he already proved he easily was in 2013.

He's still an elite defensive player, which also gives him a free pass. He's still young and on a cheap contract, that also gives him a free pass.

 

[slipknottin]

Not his fault he's better than the guy who was paid huge money to be the 1C

 

[SnowblindNYR]

It's amazing for most of last year's regular season he was constantly noticeable and making great plays. Ok, his shot may not be there, but he's not even making great passes.

 

[slipknottin]

So either he's a 70+ point player or "he sucks"

Logic at its finest

 

[DelZottoHitTheNetJK]

It's amazing for most of last year's regular season he was constantly noticeable and making great plays. Ok, his shot may not be there, but he's not even making great passes.

Meh. For me, noticeable plays are explosive plays. Stepan is the polar opposite of an explosive player. His stats got padded last year because Torts stuck him on the Left circle of the powerplay and he banged home at least 4 or 5 empty nets. The passing play of the century (I believe it was Richards to Nash to Stepan? you guys know which one I'm talking about) last year had Stepan banging it in to the empty net. That happened several times to a lesser extent. I'm not saying I won't take the goals, but someone call me when Stepan beats a defender and snipes one off the post 5 on 5. Just a terribly boring, overrated player. There are some solid UFA Center options; I'm all for trading Stepan for a nice package and signing a Stastny or Grabovski and rolling

Stastny
Brassard
Miller
Boyle/Moore

 

[DelZottoHitTheNetJK]

So either he's a 70+ point player or "he sucks"

Logic at its finest

No idea what you're talking about. People were all over Stepan's nuts when he put up 51 points. He's overrated on this board because he's

1. Young
2. American
3. a NYR draft pick


He's the best tradeable asset this team has right now, and we should move him. The holdout pissed me off as well. Last player to do that was Dubinsky and he's no longer a Ranger. Let's keep that trend going

 

[slipknottin]

They should move him because you are angry he held out. Cool story

 

[mike14]

Much rather keep Stepan than Brassard (he'll have a lower cap hit too). Stepan doesn't suck, he's just an 'average' top 6 player. He has no standout quality (good allrounder) and thus far hasn't shown a real ability to make his line mates better. There's no game-breaking potential that I can see, but he should be a 50-60 pt C for years to come (with a few years closer to/over 70). Ideally he'd be holding down the 2nd line spot for the next half decade plus, but it's more likely he'll have to keep taking on the #1C job for a few years at least

 

[TheDirtyH]

Meh. For me, noticeable plays are explosive plays. Stepan is the polar opposite of an explosive player. His stats got padded last year because Torts stuck him on the Left circle of the powerplay and he banged home at least 4 or 5 empty nets. The passing play of the century (I believe it was Richards to Nash to Stepan? you guys know which one I'm talking about) last year had Stepan banging it in to the empty net. That happened several times to a lesser extent. I'm not saying I won't take the goals, but someone call me when Stepan beats a defender and snipes one off the post 5 on 5. Just a terribly boring, overrated player. There are some solid UFA Center options; I'm all for trading Stepan for a nice package and signing a Stastny or Grabovski and rolling

Stastny
Brassard
Miller
Boyle/Moore

This was this season:
http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=478257

 

[Leonardo87]

Here we go again with the Stepan hate, he can make a perfect pass but if his linemates dont' finish, what do you want him to do. He is a passer, not a scorer, that is why we have Nash, but when Nash can't score after Stepan feeds him with a perfect pass, its Stepans fault not Nash. Its always the Defense fault that Lundqvist can't make a routine save, when every other goalie makes a save. The love for Hank and the hate for Stepan is ridiculous, Cally love but he doesn't do much but take a penelty which kills our momentum and loses us the game, but he is great cause he is the captain.

Yeah only issue is was the call was made when the Tampa's player's stick hit Bishop and not Cally's stick, was a bad call. Plus Cally did not lose it for us he worked his ass off after that penalty to get this team back, It was Delzaster and Moore who lost it for us when they let Kucherov get past them.

Callahan had a great game, had a sweet pass to Richards for a goal and was creating chances all night, and was excellent on the 2nd PK.

Callahan now has a higher PPG average than Stepan this season, and he has had multiple injuries to deal with. I've defended Nash and Callahan all season due to their injuries, and now they are starting to get hot and are playing to their norms.

What's Stepan's excuse? 48 games in this season, has only 7 goals, only scored a goal in 5 games this season.

 

[RGY]

Still on pace for over 45+ points. However, too many games where has been invisible especially when we are down in the last minutes of a game.

 

[I Eat Crow]

I'm not going to add even more fuel to the fire. I'm just going to say I disagree with the Stepan naysayers. He's having a bad year. Lundqvist was having a bad year until about two weeks ago. Del Zotto has had good and bad games. We are where we are in the standings because guys that are supposed to contribute aren't doing as much as they should. Stepan will turn it around. He's too smart of a player not to.

 

[profchaos2001]

Stepan hasn't missed a single game while playing for this team. 3.5 years now. 82 in 10-11 and 11-12, 48 in 12-13. hasn't missed one yet this year. Hat trick in his first NHL game.

He's a work horse. He and Kreider have good chemistry. It'll work out

 

[Brady Skjei]

Players just aren't allowed to have slumps or off years, are they? Everyone was ****-talking Nash and Hank because they were having putrid seasons, and now that they're playing better everyone can focus more on Stepan's down year.

Nearly PPG last year, barely over .5 PPG this year. He had progressed when it comes to points every year since his rookie year until this one. He'll pick up his game; there's no reason to believe that last year was his peak year at 22. He is going to be a solid player for us for a long time.

 

[SlingshotVv]

Devin Setoguchi is also more valuable than Stepan....

Don't bother. I am so confused by his argument in this thread. It's worse than his argument in the trade spec thread. In one breathe he is insulting the "people" who picked team USA because they put Stepan on the roster, then in the next breathe he is saying it wasn't so hard to draft those players for their own franchises; AND THEN in the next breathe he is talking about how the rangers drafted Jessiman, Montoya, Brendl, etc. Where in the hell is this thought process going.

Drunk.

delzottothitthenetjk is out to lunch. Every post since he's come here is a half coherent ramble to prop up his fantasy of his elite-level roster building/talent evaluating knowledge. He really belongs in a front office somewhere, not on HF. He definitely sat at home and had Getz, Parise, and such penciled in when the NYR were on the clock lol.

The GM's that drafted USA's roster are inept at identifying talent, and he didn't even realize they're the exact same GM's that drafted the players that he's parading around as being massive NYR misses in the entry draft.

 

[theFiGS]

I pointed out a few months ago on damn near every nhl team stepan is a 2C and on some teams he's a 3C
Boston - berg krecji
Pitt - malkin Crosby
SJS - Thornton couture
La - Richards kopitar
Van - sedin kesler
Col - duchene stastny

This is 6 teams that would have our 1C playing 3C on their team. Anybody know what they all have in common? They'll all make the playoffs this year, so how does the NYR compete with teams like this when our top line center would be a 3C on 6 teams in the league? I'm not against stepan I really like the guy but his skating really holds him back and it seems he rarely plays with fire. If he stays a ranger he will have to be our 2C for us to succeed and we have to either strike gold and draft our 1C (best option) or trade for one like Dallas went out and did by getting seguin (I want eberle even though he's a winger now)

 

[The Lunatic Fridge]

Players just aren't allowed to have slumps or off years, are they? Everyone was ****-talking Nash and Hank because they were having putrid seasons, and now that they're playing better everyone can focus more on Stepan's down year.

Nearly PPG last year, barely over .5 PPG this year. He had progressed when it comes to points every year since his rookie year until this one. He'll pick up his game; there's no reason to believe that last year was his peak year at 22. He is going to be a solid player for us for a long time.

I have never bashed lundqvist or nash other than bone headed moves during games because i obviously knew thats not how they typically play. Stepan on the other hand has gone the entire season without showing any sign of getting back "into form" one bit. I thought at first that he had a hand or arm injury but he shows a good wrist shot from time to time so i tend to think thats not it anymore, Yet most of the time his faceoffs and passing etc is absolutely horrific. No signs of change in sight, so he deserves the flack he's getting.

 

[Ola]

Hehe, a year ago today + 10 days we had this same thread and it turned into a lynching of everyone that wasn't huge Stepan believers...

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1332525&highlight=stepan

Stepan is what he is. We all know that. He has found ways to work really well in some environments, the last time with Hagelin. I like that AV is sticking with a line. I know that many good thinkers, players, experts old coaches thinks that its a problem that coaches mix up their lines way too much. Coaches who mixes lines a lot often themselves thinks its the second best option.

But I said it in defense of Nash when he was struggling, I'll say it now, the Kreider-Stepan-Nash line is -- still -- not working well at all. Kreider isn't finding ways to help Stepan and Nash. Stepan isn't finding ways to help Kreider and Nash. Nash isn't finding ways to help Kreider and Stepan. They have not been able to establish any set go-to structures on the ice. They try a bunch of things, but nothing is working on a regular basis.

Also, in the thread above on Stepan I made a few pts on him that I took a lot of heat for.

When he had a really slow start after a slow finnish:
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=58957121&postcount=467

When he was doing really well:
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=61232703&postcount=706

Was I right or wrong, I don't know. But I have a similar pt I want to make on Chris Kreider. He is loved universially right now. I like how he is coming along and I think he will be a great asset for us. But you often see comments on how he is our best player in some games, how its a mystery why he doesn't play 4 on 4 etc. How can someone get that praise when he isn't finding ways to help his linemates at all? And to be fair, if anything that is his job on that line. Its his job to forecheck, to win battles for the puck, to do the dirty work. And I mean, lets be honest, he is somwhat failing that on a regular basis. For a top line, that line gets very little going, they have produced very little the last 15 games, and they are not improving.

Last year Hags did a good job with Stepan and Nash. You know, I don't think Kreider this year is doing as good job as Hags did last year. Maybe that is a change we consider to do. Switch Kreider and Hags in the lineup. Maybe we should consider switching Stepan with Richards. All I know is that after a bunch of games together, the line with Kreider-Stepan-Nash is really not getting the job done.

 

[Ail]

Probably a slump, but honestly after last season people were overrating him big time. He's still a valuable player, but not quite the caliber people would like him to be.

 

[Raspewtin]

The thing with Stepan is that when he slumps, god does he slump hard. He isn't very athletic and his skating is average, so when he's not thinking at a high level and making smart and effective plays, he's absolutely useless. He has to play at a mentally high level, all the time, because he can't make up for it athletically. And we're seeing how much that's hurting him right now.

 

[Hi ImHFNYR]

DZHN was absolutely brutal in this thread. Jeeesus christ painful to watch a poster implode like that. And I was very public to start the season that regardless of holding out I am not confident in Stepan's ability to be a top player and producer with any sort of consistency, yet. So it's not even like I disagree with the guy. But good lord DZ your posts were just too loaded the hypocrisy, ego inflation and statements that were SO far that they make you completely wrong. Ironic how far wide you missed with your opinion considering your name and all. Are you championship's second account or something?

 

[darko]

He was never good. He had a great 30 games last year. Other than that he's been a ghost that sponges up secondary assists his whole career.

Except he played like a 1C last season. Just when I thought you couldn't post more rubbish you keep proving me wrong.

 

[mas0764]

Probably a slump, but honestly after last season people were overrating him big time. He's still a valuable player, but not quite the caliber people would like him to be.

This.

He needs to be a second line center. The Rangers are, have been, and probably will continue to be, in desperate need of a true #1 center.

Someone who puts up 75-90 points a year, not 55-70.

Problem is, there aren't too many of those guys, but you know, the teams that are good year in and year out generally have one.